I see them always there

Circus 1

Circus 2

Circus 3

Circus 4

The photographs were taken at Sirkus Finlandia in Helsinki on October 19th.

(Posting title is from the poem A Side Street by Louis Untermeyer.)

Out of this combination of experience and aloneness

Circus 1

Circus 2

Circus 3

Circus 4

The photographs were taken at Sirkus Finlandia in Helsinki on October 19th.

The weather is warming up, and the road conditions are getting worse. Snow and ice are starting to melt, and riding the bicycle can be challenging.

(Posting title is from the poem The Circus by Kenneth Koch.)

Eyes reach from level earth

View 1

View 2

View 3

View 4

The photographs were taken in Helsinki on October 19th, on the way to Sirkus Finlandia.

(Posting title is from the poem The Screen of Distance by Barbara Guest.)

And not one of them aware of their silly beauty

Sirkus 1

Sirkus 2

Sirkus 3

Sirkus 4

Sirkus 5

Sirkus 6

Sirkus 7

Sirkus 8

The photographs were taken on October 15th, visiting Sirkus Finlandia with the children. The show was good. The best thing was the clown. She did a lot of different acts, and engaged the audience.

I did a little bit of walking this morning. It was raining, and rather warm, +8 °C. The next week seems to be somewhat similar, rather wet, and temperature above +5 °C. So there shouldn't be any danger of black ice on the road.

I need to remember to be careful when riding the bicycle. To help with this I took a photograph of the road rash. It hurts when I look at it.

(Posting title is from the poem The Beach at Sunset by Eloise Klein Healy.)

Illuminated on the surface of some

Circus 1

Circus 2

Circus 3

Circus 4

This morning I walked for 1 1/2 hours, looking at autumn colors. I saw a deer, but it was so shy and fast I didn't catch it in a photograph.

These photographs were taken on September 4th.

(Posting title is from the poem Shy Boy by Greg Sellers.)

Hoping the while, since evils sometimes mend

Circus

I got over eight hours of exercise this week, riding the bicycle and walking. Today I visited a circus with my daughter, taking quite a few photographs. There were some excellent performances, but not much audience.

When importing the photographs I realized I have taken over 50,000 photographs with the Panasonic LX100. There are some little signs of wear and tear, but mostly the camera works as well as when it was new.

During the next weekend I will be traveling, so there may be a break in the postings here.

(Posting title is from the poem Caliban upon Setebos by Robert Browning.)

I wanted to grow up and be composed and expert

Circus 1

Circus 2

Circus 3

Here is the last set of photographs from Sirkus Caliba performance on Saturday. My daughter was keen on showing the photographs to the older sisters who didn't attend the show, I guess they felt that they are too old for circus. Maybe it is so, a certain age group seemed to be missing from the audience.

Today I commuted by bicycle, and the bicycle remained in working order. Also, I got an answer from the bicycle repair shop, telling that if the problem appears again, they will fix it under guarantee. One possibility mentioned by them was that maybe the rim is flexing and breaking the spokes. Well, I hope the problems won't appear again.

(Posting title is from the poem Military Mind by Charlie Smith.)

Tasting the air this spicy night which turns

Circus 1

Circus 2

Performance at Sirkus Caliba which I visited with my daughter on Saturday.

(Posting title is from the poem Fra Lippo Lippi by Robert Browning.)

Gold in a land of starved desire for summer

Circus 1

Circus 2

Circus 3

Here is yet another performance at Sirkus Caliba on Saturday, earial silk, which seemed so effortless but is everything but easy.

Quite a few people took photographs, most with their camera phones, which a couple of years ago wouldn't have been possible, but these days even a darkened circus tent has enough light for a camera phone. Some had DLSRs with them, which guarantee excellent photographs these days, at least technically. And my LX5 did quite well, at ISO 500 the exposure was about 1/10 second, not bad at all.

(Posting title is from the poem Finnish Opera by Barbara Guest.)

If items of horror can make a man laugh

Circus 1

Circus 2

Circus 3

Yesterday I went to Sirkus Caliba with my youngest daughter, to see the show and enjoy the evening. This circus group visits the nearby football field each year at the end of summer, but often we have had some other program and haven't been able to go. The show had changed quite a lot, and it wasn't at all bad, taking almost two hours with a 15-minute break in the middle.

CJ Gordon commented my troubles with the bicycle, suggesting that if this is a matter of back wheel going out of true, it would be easy to learn the repair skills. Well, I'm not so great with fixing mechanical things, and then this doesn't seem to be a straightforward problem. Here is what I wrote in the comments:

It is not really the wheel going out of true, it is the spokes breaking near the rim of the wheel, one after another.

I have a gear hub in the back wheel, Nexus 8, so-called red-band version, and I had the old gear hub replaced after 15 000 km, when it had worn out. At the same time the rim, spokes, etc. were replaced with new ones.

But then, spokes started breaking so that the screw thread part stayed in the screw at the rim; the spokes break at the place where the thread stops.

I have been thinking that perhaps the wheel is not put together properly, but I'm not sure what would be the right "pattern" for a gear hub. The gear hub is bigger than an ordinary one, and so the spokes are more angled when they start from the rim, and thus there is sideways torsion which must be a reason for the breaking.

I borrowed from the library Bike repair manual by Chris Sidwells (in a Finnish translation), which gave some instructions on how one should approach truing wheels, but still I have no idea what is the problem here.

(Posting title is from the poem In the Theatre by Dannie Abse.)

There are so many factors engaging our attention!

Circus 1

Circus 2

Circus 3

Here is another installment of circus performances at Särkänniemi amusement park yesterday.

(Posting title is from the poem The Circus by Kenneth Koch.)

I think of the sense of fury in that road

Circus 1

Circus 2

Circus 3

Circus 4

We are back home from traveling. I drove the car for 2200 km, a bit less than I thought. And there are 2878 photographs to go through, which will take some time.

Here is a sample from yesterday which we spent at Särkänniemi amusement park at Tampere. On July 5th we visited Linnanmäki amusement park and spent seven hours there. This time we spent almost nine hours at Särkänniemi, mostly waiting in queues for rides and events to start, and walking around the area.

Standing and walking was a nice change from day before during which I rode the car for 780 km south from Salla in Lapland. I think I have gotten enough exercise during the vacation, as my weight is still going down. I have lost about 12 kg since two years ago. I need to lose 1 kg more and I'm at the normal range of BMI (Body Mass Index).

(Posting title is from the poem The Road by Herbert Morris.)

Circus visit

Circus, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Throw, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Horse, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Yesterday we went to a circus which had put up its tent nearby. The children liked it very much. I tried to take photographs, but didn't manage well at all. Either I should have gone closer and try to get more sharper exposures, or use deliberate motion blur as in the photographs from Linnanmäki.

Visiting the Linnanmäki amusement park

Linnanmäki amusement park, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Welcome, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Circus, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Weights, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Yesterday we went to the Linnanmäki amusement park in Helsinki. It was a hot day, but there was some wind which helped somewhat. Lots of people in the park, long queues, but nevertheless it was fun.

I did some low-light photography with the LX3 during a ride, and I rather like the motion-blur effect. It sort of suits the topic.

Speaking of the LX3, it seems that the sceptics have come out regarding the LX5, claiming that ISO 1600 is worse on the new camera than on the LX3. Well, I don't put much weight on pixel-peeping. But if ISO 800 delivers somewhat acceptable results, and ISO 400 is all right, that would be good, and rather good from a small-sensor camera.

After studying the new controls of the LX5, I'm starting to be optimistic about the usability. (See here.)

There are now dedicated buttons in the back for focus and ISO, and a dedicated playback button. On the LX3 I have mapped review to the function button, which would be free on the LX5 to other purposes, perhaps for changing the focusing mode etc.

Imaging resource provides a sort of technology preview of the LX5, which is interesting to read. The new lens seems to be very promising in terms of image quality. And autofocus speed is probably indeed improved compared to the LX3. And same for image stabilization. Well, that is the theory at least.

But without handling the camera in person it is very difficult to say how good it is in practice. For example, how the new jog wheel works, and are the LX3 nuisances corrected - the easily turning control wheel and the easily opening battery compartment door. At least it seems that the door is exactly the same as on the LX3.